Making a full length artist book was much more of an undertaking than I had ever imagined. I thought I was home free once I had my concept but, oh, was I wrong!!
This book has to do with the past 8 long years and I found I couldn't put in everything I wanted to, which is just as well. I had to learn to distill things and figure out when one image would speak for many. I struggled with the chronological sequence and in the end had to be arbitrary about which pages came in which order. The Book Arts Roundtable, of which I'm a member, is having a show starting next week at the Pierro Gallery, at the Baird in South Orange, NJ, and this book was made as my contribution. Since I'm a new member, this is my first time having a book in the gallery show. I'm anxious about whether it's good enough or too controversial. Tomorrow I hand it in and then I can just let it be.
As you can see, I used my own paste paper for the cover and I used a Coptic binding. The "button" is rolled up and glued paper like the cover paper. The cover pleases me.
Here's my favorite page spread. I used collage, painting and drawing. It was a powerful experience working with these images.
I was able to work in some of my prints, relief and otherwise, into the pages. In this page
spread the "shock and awe" is a print I did on that subject.
